Wednesday, October 8, 2014

This is my Part Four Blog of the USA vs The World - ANW 6 Special that aired on Monday, September 15, 2014. For those who are confused when this happened.. it was the Final day (Sunday) of the Las Vegas taping of American Ninja Warrior 6 back in June 15, 2014.

Been an interesting few days on the boards with this event and I hadn't even finished the blog! LOL Okay so, for clarification (and this was also in the comments. Thanks Z) - At this particular point we should be either at 6/6/6 (three way tie between all the countries in the final IF BOTH Ryo and Morimoto were given the win (the Morimoto win was not unanimous) - They would have received 6 points and would have tied the event) or 9/6/3 The more likely scenario btw (Europe winning in the 3rd stage) - because Ryo won his heat - that was unanimous by all sources.. and by a lot.

But we all know that couldn't happen because zomg they had to have that final. ANW newbies keep yelling at NBC to get a Final on US soil (espcially after propagating the false narrative that no American has ever gotten to the final) and voila we got a final. However, NBC changed the results and now we are at 9/9/0 going into the Final. Take a good look at the trophy. You won't see it for long. (more on that later LOL)

..and just to remind people that there WAS AN AMERICAN IN THE FINAL.. the Southern California born (Los Angeles) and raised Kane Kosugi ケイン・コスギ lost the Final in an epic rain-soaked Sasuke 8. Okay. I feel better now. I know there's a lot of new people who are reading my blog for the first time so just making sure we know who the first American in the Final of Mount Midoriyama was.

This is the same length if not a smidgen shorter than the CURRENT Sasuke 30 Final. However it is shorter than the Single Rope Final that Yuuji won back in Sasuke 27 (because of that huge walk up steps thing they added it cut the original length).

Fluff piece of the previous Sasuke Finals. They started with Ryo's from Sasuke 27. Seems they didn't want to touch Sasuke 30's footage for some reason even though NBC already stole Sasuke 29's footage for Morimoto. LOL

The first single Rope Final win - Sasuke All-Star Kazuhiko Akiyama 秋山 和彦 This was televised on TBS in October, 1999 during Sasuke 4 in Japan.

This win from Sasuke All-Star Allstar - Makoto Nagano 長野誠 was a Spider Climb to single Rope combination. This was televised on TBS on October, 2006 during Sasuke 17 in Japan.

The first of the wins from Yuuji Urushihara 漆原裕治 (Cliffer #3) was a rope ladder to single Rope combination. This was televised on TBS on January, 2010 during Sasuke 24 in Japan.

The second of the wins from Yuuji Urushihara 漆原裕治 (Cliffer #3) was the last time there as a single Rope Final. This was televised on TBS on October, 2011 in Japan. I laughed at Matt Iseman's "a recent Final".. when they omitted Sasuke 30 that had TWO people in the Final. And that was taller than this version.

Okay RIGHT off the bat. One rule was already broken. The rule was that no team can run a single competitor more than twice. Travis only ran the 2nd Stage so he's fine. (No one else for team USA would have qualified since they all ran twice). Sean, however ran the 2nd and 3rd stages already. (Eligible ones to run would have been Miska since everyone else ran twice) He should not have been in the Final. (If Japan ran the only one eligible person would have been Shingo)

Fluff piece on Travis

Showing his years of training on rope climbing

I still find it awkward to see the Japanese standing there for absolutely no reason. LOL

Interview with the pretty robot lady

Yeah .. I don't know why you are here either. LOL

Matt Quotes™: "Well Everyone in the crowd is on their feet including the Japanese team".. of course.. you propped them there for absolutely no reason.. If they were eliminated why are they even there??

Sean already ran. Yes. I said that. SEAN ALREADY DID STAGE FOUR.

Familycam™

Symbolic fondling of the rope™ (note there's no harness on him). Sean ran first and put up a nice fast time. So again, NBC fudging with the order for television purposes. I'll explain later.

So.. having already run the Final, he's seeing if Travis is going faster. Remember, there is no timer. They are going by visual inspection and counting on their own.

NOW he has a harness..

Here we go. Just FYI... there was an audible sound but it was more of a .. buzzer? like in basketball (at least that's the sound that I equate it to) but longer than the youtube video example I just posted. It was not the sounds you hear on television.

Using his arms exclusively for the first part

Finally switching to his legs when he starts to run out of gas

Remember, at this point Team Europe is watching to see if he's slower than Sean.

So Sean and Tim's reaction is directly due to seeing Travis slow down.

Travis not giving up but considerably slower than when he started. Still though that's friggin' amazing to do that so quickly and a MUCH longer rope climb.

he actually whiffed the first time he tried touching the red button. (I'll show that on replays)

Everyone kinda stood there hoping it was fast enough.

Sean is thinking he was faster at this point but it's not confirmed, however that was important to note because at this point he thinks he won based on that. It explains his posture and Tim's total mugging.

So he celebrates at the top not knowing what his time was. Nor Sean's for that matter as there was no timer nor announcement of actual times.

So the confusion goes on for 20-25 MINUTES.

replay of him finally changing to his legs.

And the initial miss of the buzzer

Everyone kinda standing around confused.

Sean and the rest of Europe going "wtf.. what's the hold up".. They literally stood there for 20-25 minutes until NBC finally realized they LOST the final they sacrificed the Japanese for. I'm happy at least cooler heads prevailed and they didn't rob Sean of the win when he was clearly ahead. Given that they already broke the rule in putting their invited guest star on the Final .. I think they didn't want to piss them off by stealing HIS win on top of everything else that has transpired so far.

So while everyone waits for what seemed like an eternity..

Travis goes to greet his family

And celebrates with Team USA hoping it was fast enough. The wait was agonizing.

Meanwhile, we go magically back in time to show Sean's interview

His fluff piece is a replay of his Stage 2 heroics

and Stage 3 fail that should have disqualified him from running the final. (The 2 runs only rule that each country had to abide by)

So again, he's running FIRST and not second.

Symbolic fondling of the Rope™ (no harness)

and suddenly he's got a harness.

First competitor to run the Stage Four Final in America!

Watching Sean go up knowing that Travis has to be faster

Sean going at a steady pace clearly faster.

starting to slow down a little

and Sean actually 2-4 seconds faster (yes yes.. ignore the timer)

Random Crowd shot™

Random Crowd Shot™

no idea when this was taken. Travis hasn't even gone yet so no friggin' clue when this happened.

Well Everyone is still looking up so it's not when it was announced.

They are just celebrating thinking he did a good job.

I think the reason they put it in this order, was because they had no way to justify why there were TWO celebrations at the top of the tower. LOL Sean went first. Celebrated. Travis went second and he celebrated too!

Ultimately Canad.. er.. "Europe" won twice. They should have won in the 3rd stage when Stefano won his heat.

Okay that's a cool and scary shot of being waaaay up there. .. wait. oh wow I see what happened. Okay lemme walk you through this. Someone told me that the sun was starting to come up and they weren't sure if the video was darkened to still make it look like it was night. THAT is important for what is about to happen.

A weird side by side comparison but not at the right zoom. Probably because they were hiding the fact that the sun was starting to come up. Also, they are making it look like it's closer than it is when indeed Sean was faster (I personally counted 3 seconds) by 2-4 seconds depending on who you talk to.

NBC trying to say it was close because Travis whiffed his hand the first time.

Sadly though, that only bought him a Second. Sean was already inside the tower by the time Travis even got to the button.

you wouldn't be hoarse if you didn't scream everything Matt.. Akbar isn't hoarse because he didn't yell!

And the WTF / LMFAO moment of the night.

This SHOULD look weird. This is a baaaaaaaaad Photoshop. LOL

You see.. the sun was completely out. Everyone left (hell the Japanese were probably already at the hotel as Morimoto confirmed - they never saw a trophy presentation) and NBC probably went OMFG we never did the trophy celebration! LOL

and WHO THE HELL IS THAT GUY WEARING THE BLUE JACKET? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

(thanks there anonymous tip!) I assume they did this in the parking lot after everyone was gone? If I get confirmation I'll update this. LMFAO

So we end with a nice funny eye opener. This was the most screwed up rewriting of history that NBC has EVER done. Even down to the photoshop darkening of the video, insertion of the crowd, slowmo pan to show a ceremony that never existed! LOL I'm sure NBC was seeeeething that after all that fixing they couldn't come up with the win. This last Photoshop just encompassed the futility in everything NBC did. What was wrong with showing a sun coming up ceremony? Heck it could have been epic to say "hey this awesomeness took us to the dawn of a new day!" or something like that (like one of Sasuke's final where they embraced that the sun came up on the recording). I'm still checking to see when this was taken or if the video is even real! The arms looked weird but not sure if it was because hey were trying to superimpose the crowd in the background or because they artificially made the arms go up? Not sure. I think it's just the superimposition of the background. I don't even know since none of my contacts even saw this so it didn't happen within the context of the competition. Wow.. So yep. That sums it up! Shoutout to Morimoto who encouraged me strongly to write this. He also wanted me to post a note to the international fans.

He's basically super thankful for the opportunity to participate and he was super happy to clear the 3rd stage which he saw as more difficult than the Japanese 3rd stage. Also he was super happy that everyone (Japanese, American etc.) was happy and cheered when he cleared the 3rd stage. Despite losing, everyone gave it their all and that's enough for him. If he gets invited again he will do his best to make it a good match up and he will do his best to train for that day. He's very thankful to everyone (Japanese team, American team, European team, and the ANW fans)

Morimoto kept assuring me that he's okay. He knows it's a fictional show. He appreciated and understood my furor. Not everyone was happy. However, he's just jazzed that he cleared the 3rd stage and was the furthest out of all the Japanese in the 2nd stage. He was afraid he wouldn't hold his weight being the rookie of the team replacing the 2-time Champion Yuuji. Especially with the pressure from Sasuke 30 (where he wore #3000), he was so happy to deliver when it counted. Even if his loss was controversial (for the record he thought he was slower but had no data to back it up since there were no visible timers on the course). He's proud that in every international competition (ASEAN and now ANW) he delivered. I hope by now people will see him as a serious contender and a clutch performer. He was worried that others wouldn't think he was and that's why he was so proud of what he did. And ultimately why he wanted to convince me to write so the rest of the world this blog so they would know it too.